The present invention relates to a golf club shaft having superior appearance.
Carbon, steel, and the like are used as materials for golf club shafts. In the case of a shaft made of steel, plating is used as a surface treatment to increase corrosion resistance. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-22448 is known as a golf club shaft in which a steel shaft body is plated. This publication discloses the formation of a diamond-like carbon film having carbon as it main component on the surface of the plating layer for the purpose of improving the resistance to scratching and resistance to rusting.
In the case of plating, however, there is an appearance problem because there is no variation in the color of the surface of the shaft after plating. Also, because it is difficult to plate all of the inside of the shaft, there is the problem of internal rusting. Additionally, because the thickness of the plated coating film is great and because of a large amount of variation in thickness between products, the weight of the shaft exhibits an increase in the variation in weight, thereby adversely affecting the performance of a golf club incorporating such a shaft. In addition, as an environmental consideration there is the problem of the high cost of processing plating effluents.